Two U.S. representatives accused Clapper of perjury for telling a Congressional committee in March 2013, that the NSA does not collect any type of data at all on millions of Americans. One senator asked for his resignation, and a group of 26 senators complained about Clapper's responses under questioning. Media observers have described Clapper as having lied under oath, having obstructed justice, and having given false testimony.

Clapper was born in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the son of Anne Elizabeth (née Wheatley) and First Lieutenant James Robert Clapper.[7][8] His maternal grandfather, James McNeal Wheatley, was an Episcopalian minister.[9]

From 2006-2007 Clapper worked for GeoEye (satellite company) and was an executive on the boards of three government contractors, two of which were doing business with the NGA while he was there: In October 2006 as chief operating officer for the British military intelligence company Detica, now DFI and US-based subsidiary of BAE Systems, also SRA International and Booz Allen Hamilton.[11] Clapper defended the private sector's role in his 2010 confirmation hearings: "I worked as a contractor for six years myself, so I think I have a good understanding of the contribution that they have made and will continue to make."[12]

Appointment as Under Secretary of Defense for Intelligence (USD(I))[edit]

President Obama made the official announcement on YouTube on June 5, 2010 saying Clapper "possesses a quality that I value in all my advisers: a willingness to tell leaders what we need to know even if it's not what we want to hear."[16]

On August 5, 2010, Clapper was confirmed by the Senate in a unanimous vote.[5] Lawmakers approved his nomination after the Senate Intelligence Committee backed him with a 15-0 vote. During his testimony for the position, Director Clapper pledged to advance the DNI's authorities, exert tighter control over programming and budgeting, and provide oversight over the CIA's use of predator drones in Pakistan.[17]

Creating position of deputy director for intelligence integration[edit]

In August 2010, Clapper announced a new position at the DNI, designed to integrate the former posts of Deputy Director for Analysis and Deputy Director for Collections, now called the "deputy director for intelligence integration". Robert Cardillo, the deputy director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, was tapped as the first person to fill this new post.[18][19][20]

In an agreement reached between Defense SecretaryRobert Gates and Clapper, the Office of the Director of National Intelligence assumed administrative control over the National Intelligence Program (NIP). Previously the NIP was itemized within the Defense Department budget to keep the line item and dollar amount from public view. Clapper's office disclosed the top line budget as $53.1 billion late October 2010, which is below the $75 billion figure circulated in 2010.[21] in the belief the budget change will strengthen the DNI's authority.[22][23][24][25]

Giving evidence to the Senate in February 2012 Clapper told Congress that if Iran is attacked over its alleged nuclear weapons program, it could respond by closing the Strait of Hormuz to ships and launch missiles at regional U.S. forces and allies. Former Defense Intelligence Agency chief Lt. Gen. Ronald Burgess told senators Iran is unlikely to initiate or intentionally provoke a conflict. Clapper said it’s “technically feasible” that Tehran could produce a nuclear weapon in one or two years, if its leaders decide to build one, “but practically not likely”. Both men said they do not believe Israel has decided to strike Iran.[26]

Clapper has made "intelligence integration" across the Intelligence Community the primary mission of the ODNI.[27] In 2012, the office announced an initiative to create a common information technology desktop for the entire Intelligence Community, moving away from unconnected agency networks to a common enterprise model. The shared IT infrastructure reached operating capability in late fiscal 2013, with plans to bring on all intelligence agencies over the next few years.[28]

Excerpt of James Clapper's testimony before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence

On March 12, 2013, during a United States SenateSelect Committee on Intelligence hearing, Senator Ron Wyden quoted the keynote speech at the 2012 DEF CON by the director of the NSA, Keith B. Alexander. Alexander had stated that "Our job is foreign intelligence" and that "Those who would want to weave the story that we have millions or hundreds of millions of dossiers on people, is absolutely false…From my perspective, this is absolute nonsense." Senator Wyden then asked Clapper, "Does the NSA collect any type of data at all on millions or hundreds of millions of Americans?" He responded "No, sir." Wyden asked "It does not?" and Clapper said "Not wittingly. There are cases where they could inadvertently, perhaps, collect, but not wittingly."[29]

When Edward Snowden was asked during his January 26, 2014 TV interview in Moscow what the decisive moment was or why he blew the whistle, he replied: "Sort of the breaking point was seeing the Director of National Intelligence, James Clapper, directly lie under oath to Congress. … Seeing that really meant for me there was no going back."[30]

On June 6, 2013 Director Clapper released a statement admitting the NSA collects telephony metadata on millions of Americans telephone calls.[31] This metadata information included originating and terminating telephone number, telephone calling card number, International Mobile Station Equipment Identity (IMEI) number, time, and duration of phone calls, but did not include the name, address or financial information of any subscriber.[32]

On June 7, 2013, Clapper was interviewed by Andrea Mitchell on NBC. Clapper said that "I responded in what I thought was the most truthful, or least untruthful manner by saying no" when he testified.[33]

On June 12, 2013, United States House of Representatives member Justin Amash became the first Congressman to openly accuse Director Clapper of criminal perjury, and calling for his resignation. In a series of tweets he stated: "It now appears clear that the director of national intelligence, James Clapper, lied under oath to Congress and the American people," and "Perjury is a serious crime ... [and] Clapper should resign immediately,"[34] Senator Rand Paul said "The director of national intelligence, in March, did directly lie to Congress, which is against the law."[35] Paul later suggested that Clapper might deserve prison time for his testimony.[36]

On June 27, 2013 a group of 26 senators sent him a complaint letter opposing the use of a "body of secret law".[37][38] On July 1, 2013, Clapper issued an apology, saying that "My response was clearly erroneous – for which I apologize."[39] On July 2, Clapper said that he had forgotten about the Patriot Act and therefore had given an "erroneous" answer.[40]

The journalist Glenn Greenwald accused the media in the U.S. of focusing on Edward Snowden instead of focusing on wrongdoing by Clapper and other U.S. officials.[41] Jody Westby of Forbes argued that due to the revelations, the American public should ask Clapper to resign from office, arguing that "Not only did Mr. Clapper give false testimony to Congress, even his June 6 statement was false. We now know — since the companies identified by the Washington Post have started fessing up — that lots more than telephony metadata has been collected and searched."[42]Fred Kaplan of Slate also advocated having Clapper fired, arguing "if President Obama really welcomes an open debate on this subject, James Clapper has disqualified himself from participation in it. He has to go."[43] Andy Greenberg of Forbes said that NSA officials along with Clapper, in the years 2012 and 2013 "publicly denied–often with carefully hedged words–participating in the kind of snooping on Americans that has since become nearly undeniable."[29]John Dean, former White House Counsel for President Nixon, has claimed that it is unlikely Clapper would be charged with the three principal criminal statutes that address false statements to Congress: perjury, obstruction of Congress, and making false statements.[44]David Sirota of Salon said that if the U.S. government fails to treat Clapper and Alexander in the same way as it did Roger Clemens, "the message from the government would be that lying to Congress about baseball is more of a felony than lying to Congress about Americans’ Fourth Amendment rights" and that the "message would declare that when it comes to brazen law-breaking, as long as you are personally connected to the president, you get protection rather than the prosecution you deserve."[45]

On December 19, 2013 seven Republican members of the House Judiciary Committee called on attorney general Eric Holder to investigate Clapper, saying that "witnesses cannot be allowed to lie to Congress."[46] In January 2014, Robert Litt, the general counsel to the Office of the DNI, stated that Clapper did not lie to Congress,[47] and in May 2015 clarified that Clapper "had absolutely forgotten the existence of" section 215 of the Patriot Act.[48]

In January 2014, six members of the House of Representatives wrote[49] to President Obama urging him to dismiss Clapper for lying to Congress,[50][51] but were rebuffed by the White House.[52] Caitlin Hayden, a White House spokesperson, said in an e-mailed statement that Obama has "full faith in Director Clapper’s leadership of the intelligence community. The Director has provided an explanation for his answers to Senator Wyden and made clear that he did not intend to mislead the Congress."[52]

In March 2014 Clapper banned employees of the intelligence community from unauthorized contact with reporters.[53] The next month he implemented a new pre-publication review policy for the ODNI's current and former employees that prohibits them from citing news reports based on leaks in their unofficial writings.[54]

In 2003, Clapper, then head of the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency, attempted to explain the absence of weapons of mass destruction in Iraq by asserting that the weapons materials were "unquestionably" shipped out of Iraq to Syria and other countries just before the American invasion, a "personal assessment" which Clapper's own agency head at the time, David Burpee, "could not provide further evidence to support".[57]

In an interview on December 20, 2010 with Diane Sawyer of ABC News, Clapper indicated he was completely unaware that twelve alleged would-be terrorists had been arrested in Great Britain earlier that day.[58][59]

In February, 2011, when mass demonstrations were bringing down Mubarak's presidency in Egypt, Clapper told a House Intelligence Committee hearing that:

"The term 'Muslim Brotherhood'...is an umbrella term for a variety of movements, in the case of Egypt, a very heterogeneous group, largely secular, which has eschewed violence and has decried Al Qaeda as a perversion of Islam," ... "They have pursued social ends, a betterment of the political order in Egypt, et cetera.....In other countries, there are also chapters or franchises of the Muslim Brotherhood, but there is no overarching agenda, particularly in pursuit of violence, at least internationally."[60]

The Obama administration took the rare step later that day of correcting its own intelligence chief after the statement drew scrutiny among members of Congress.[61]

In March 2011, Clapper was heard at the United States Senate Committee on Armed Services commenting on the 2011 Libyan civil war that "over the longer term" Gaddafi "will prevail." This position was loudly questioned by the White House, when National Security AdvisorThomas E. Donilon qualified his statement as a "static and one-dimensional assessment" and argued that "The lost legitimacy [of Gaddafi] matters."[62] During the same hearing he was also questioned when he neglected to list Iran and North Korea among the nuclear powers that might pose a threat to the United States.

In 1965 Clapper married his wife Sue, who herself was an NSA employee. They have a daughter Jennifer, principal of an elementary school in Fairfax County, married to Jay, a high school teacher. He has a brother Mike Clapper from Illinois, and a sister, Chris. He introduced them at the Senate confirmation hearings July 20, 2010.[63]